Early Land Acquisition in Augusta County, VA

Acquisition of Land in Augusta County:

Page 193.--11th December, 1746. James Gill and Eleanor, his wife, late of Orange County, to Edward Hughes, £25 current money Pennsylvania; on a branch of North River of Shanando called Waitings Creek, 186 acres. Witnesses, Samuel Bryan, Morgan Bryan, Jr.; John Ellis, Eleanor ( ) Gill. Proved by all witnesses, 18th March, 1746.

Disposition of Land from Chalkley's:

Page 354.--20th August, 1747. Edward Hughes, yeoman, to Thomas West. farmer, £22.10.0; on a branch of North River of Shanandore called Walling's Creek; 186 acres, being the land granted to James Gill by patent, 30th June, 1743. and sold by Gill to Hughes, 11th December, 1746. Teste: Johnn Harvie, James Porteus, Benj. Johnston. Acknowledged, 20th August, 1747.

26 March 1741. To expenses of Thos. Curtis's funeral paid by me at the desire of the widow. £1.3.0.

Signed by Morgan Bryan, executor.

The petition of Morgan Bryan that petitioner is going out of the Colony, prays your Worships will appoint a guardian to take the estate of Mary Curtis, daughter of Mary Curtis, dec., the child being by will of her mother left to my wife (the child's grandmother).

Page 267.--27th September, 1753. Commission to Edward Hughs. Squire Boone and James Carter of Roan County, North Carolina, to take acknowledgement of Martha, wife of Morgan Brian, as to deed Brian to David Johnston, then of Augusta County, dated 29th November, 1749. Executed and returned, 20th May, 1754.

Records in Rowan County, NC

June 15, 1753 - William Linville to Adam Sills for 17 pds Va. money 587 A on North bank Yadkin River. Edward Hughes and Morgan Bryan witnesses. [Deed Book 1:5-8]

June 16, 1753 - William Linville to John Wagoner for 45 pds. 440 A on South bank Yadkin River. Edward Hughes and Nicholas N. Harford witnesses. [Deed Book 1:9-12]

Abt. 1753 - Edward Hughes is granted land on the Yadkin River listed as "a planter of Anson Co., NC"

1753 - Nicholas Harford bought 331 acres from Edward Hughes at the shallowford. Harford was in the Shenandoah by 1742 and the Yadkin by 1753.

1753 - Town of Salisbury, NC - at a Court in 1753, Edward Hughes, Esq., was appointed trustee for Rowan County, and directed to "enter" forty acres of land, the place selected for the "County Seat", and to see that a title is secured from Earl Granville's agents. [Source: "A History of Rowan County, North Carolina", by Jethro Rumple, pg. 61].

September 1753 - Jeremiah Bailey, Edward Hughes, and Isaac Free applied for licenses to keep ferries across the Yadkin River.

John Pelham lived adj. Edward Hughes near the Shallowford before 1756. In the spring of 1756, Pelham sold his tract to Nathaniel Wiltshire.

1762 - Timothy Coe died in Rowan County. His estate was administered by his widow Dinah, April 15, 1763. Sureties to 500 pounds were Edward Hughes and Joseph Harrison. On August 6, 1763, Samuel Stewart presented a note to the court of Rowan County marked "The Estate of Tim Coe to Saml Stuart _ 1762." The note was signed by Stewart and proven before Edward Hughes. Ancestry Message Board.

Citations

Information on Edward Hughes

From "Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762", by Robert W. Ramsey:

Perhaps the most interesting of the early inhabitants of the Bryan settlement, and the only one still there at the time of the Revolution, was Edward Hughes. This extraordinary manmay well have been the first one actually on the ground, for his land was advantageously situated on both sides of the trail whch woundthrough a broad, gradually-decending meadow to the eastern end of the shallow ford. This trail was to become a road traversed by countless wagons in the years that followed. In 1753, Hughes established a tavern at the ford. It must have proven highly profitable, for he continued to live at the ford for over fifty years. (Note: IGI has his date of death in 1787, which contradicts this statement, more research necessary.).

In December, 1746, Edward Hughes purchased a tract of land in the valley of Virginia (for L25 PA money) on Wallings Creek, a branch of the North Shenandoah. He was still there in the fall of 1747, but removed to the Yadkin (probably with the Bryans) in 1748. Hughes lived on and on. A Rowan Co. deed dated 7 Nov 1802 informs us that Edward Hughes sold fifty acres... In a "Carolina Cradle" footnote it states that "Forbush's land was probably located in Brock's Gap in the northwestern portion of present-day Rockingham County VA."

From "The Eller Migration to Rowan County", by Jo White Linn:

The migration down the Great Wagon Road made Salisbury an important trading center almst immediately. Jeremiah Bailey, Edward Hughes, and Isaac Free applied for licenses in September 1753 to keep ferries across the Yadkin River. Edward Hughes was one of the first Justices of Rowan. Originally a Quaker from Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, where he had married Ann Zanes in 1734, Edward Hughes purchased a tract of land in the Valley of Virginia in December 1746 for L25 Pennsylvania money, on Wallings Creek, a branch of the North Shenandoah. The records of Augusta County, Virginia, show he was still there in 1747, but he removed to the to Rowan County to Forks of the Yadkin with the Bryans and Boones in 1748. He was subsequently elected sheriff of Rowan in 1758. He lived to be about 100 years old. [Source: http://www.eller.org/nov89/nov89p2.htm]